Google Launches Upgraded URLs For AdWords Ads

Google announced the launch of new "Upgraded URLs" for AdWords Ads, which enable advertisers to spend less time managing tracking updates while reducing crawl and load times for their websites. They also come with new ValueTrack parameters, which provide new insights about ads.

As Google notes, with current destination URLs, you have to update the entire thing whenever you want to adjust tracking, which triggers a re-review of your entire URL, and causes your ads to stop running during the process. Upgraded URLs enable you to enter the landing page portion and tracking info separately so you can update tracking at your account, campaign, or ad group without having to re-set ad stats.

"Tracking templates are where you enter your tracking information and tell AdWords how to assemble your URLs," explains product manager Leo Sei. "Now, if you’d like to scale your tracking updates across multiple URLs, you can use a shared tracking template at the account, campaign or ad group level. If you’d prefer to manage your URL tracking information at the individual URL level, you can use a tracking template at the ad, keyword, or sitelink level."

"Custom parameters let you customize the information you’d like to monitor as well as the specific values that get inserted into your URLs when your ad clicks are triggered," says Sei. "For example, if you’d like to insert the value 12345 whenever this specific ad is clicked, you can set the custom parameter {_mycreative} in this ad."

As far as the new ValueTrack parameters, you'll be able to track how many ad clicks were triggered by your creative by location, for example.

Google is rolling out Upgraded URLs to all advertisers beginning this week. After July 1, all URLs will begin to update to the new structure on their own.